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Monday, March 3, 2014

At some point, the Devils are going to have to find a way to string together at least three consecutive wins if they’re going to make a run and grab a playoff spot.

They’ve done it only once so far this season back when they beat Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Los Angeles from Nov. 16 to Nov. 21. Since then, they’ve won two in a row six times and have lost the following game all six times – four times in regulation.

Today’s 4-2 loss to San Jose was their latest missed opportunity following convincing wins over Columbus (5-2) and the Islanders (6-1) coming out of the Olympic break.

Sure, the Devils were playing their third game in four days and facing a talented Sharks squad whose 84 points would lead the Eastern Conference. But, at this point in the season, with only 20 games left, they’re going to need to win some of these games.

The Devils were in position to at least pick up a point by reaching overtime until Matt Nieto snapped a 2-2 tie 6:20 into the third period by finishing off a 3-on-2 rush. Patrick Marleau added a goal off a partial breakaway with 2:25 to seal things for San Jose.

“This was a really big game,” said Devils rookie defenseman Eric Gelinas, whose turnover led to Marleau’s goal “I think six points out of three games this weekend would have been really good for us. But we’ve got a game Tuesday, so we’ve got to get back to it as quick as possible.”

Today’s loss left the Devils three points behind Detroit for playoff spot with 20 games remaining. The Red Wings, who have two games in hand, visit the Devils Tuesday and host them on Friday for two contests that will be pivotal to the Devils’ postseason chances.

“You’ve got to have a short-term memory this time of year,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win tonight, we didn’t and we’ve got to regroup and be ready for Tuesday because they’re all big."

Between Tuesday’s game and Friday’s game comes the NHL’s trade deadline at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

If the Devils are going to convince GM Lou Lamoriello to keep this group together – and not sell off pieces such as Jaromir Jagr but add some scoring help instead – a victory over the Red Wings Tuesday is almost essential.

“We have a great group of guys in this locker room and everyone gets along and wants to win for each other,” defenseman Andy Greene said. “At the same time, that’s the business aspect of it.”

Whether longtime Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur will be traded probably won’t be impacted as much by the team’s playoff position because the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer is just looking for an opportunity to play more. But, Lamoriello might be less worried about keeping Brodeur as an experienced backup for Cory Schneider if he was convinced to go into selling mode Wednesday by a loss to Detroit Tuesday.

“We can’t afford to let this slide the way we’ve been playing,” left wing Ryan Clowe said. “We lost. I thought the effort was there, but we’ve got to get back to it here to more or less where we were the first two games after the break. We’ve got a big test Tuesday.”

The Devils appeared to be in good shape after taking a 2-1 lead when Patrik Elias deflected in defenseman Jon Merrill’s left point shot with 5:38 left in the second period. But the Sharks capitalized on a Greene turnover to re-tie it only 1:32 later on a 2-on-1 goal by Raffi Torres.

After carrying the puck into the Sharks’ zone and moving into the slot, Greene thought he had Dainius Zubrus on his left wing and sent a pass in that direction. Zubrus had held up at the blue line, though, to make sure he stayed on-side and Greene’s pass went directly to San Jose’s James Sheppard instead.

“It was a bad turnover,” Greene admitted. “I didn’t look too much because I didn’t want to get killed there by the weak-side defenseman. I just kind of glanced and I thought I saw him there and I think he was straddling the line to stay on-side.”

Sheppard made a quick pas up to Torres on the right wing to start the 2-on-1. Joe Pavelski joined Torres on his left wing and Merrill, who was the lone defender back, was unable to stop Torres and Pavelski from passing the puck back and forth.

Torres had a half empty net to shoot into after receiving Pavelski’s return pass. Schneider tried to dive over to make the save, but was unable to get his glove on Torres’ shot.

“It was kind of a late developing 2-on-1,” Schneider said. “I thought he was going to come in and get a shot off, but Pavelski made a nice pass back. They’ve got some good players that can make some good plays.”

DeBoer said Greene’s turnover was “easy to point to” as a turning point, but didn’t want to blame the loss on that.

“They turned the puck over too and we didn’t stick it in the net and we have the last couple of games,” DeBoer said. “It’s a game of mistakes. I don’t think you can point at one play and say that was the difference in the game. It was a hard-fought game and they found a way to score the third goal.”

Another Devils’ turnover – this one at the San Jose blue line on an Anton Volchenkov pass that went off the stick of Adam Henrique to Sharks defensman Scott Hannan – led to the 3-on-2 and Nieto’s winning goal.

This time, Hannan made the quick pass up the left wing boards to Joe Thornton, who then fed Pavelski in the middle. Pavelski passed to Nieto on his right for a shot past Schneider’s blocker for his seventh goal of the season.

The Devils had two chances on the power play after that, but could not generate a shot on goal on either. Greene also just missed on a great chance after splitting the Sharks defense, hitting the left post after sliding a backhand under goaltender Alex Stalock.

“I just decided to shoot the gap there and I don’t know how that could go all the way through the crease like that and then hit the post," Greene said. "I was pretty mad about it. It would have been nice to get that back, especially with the circumstances of the game and the goal I basically gave up in the second there with the turnover.”

Then, Tommy Wingels pressured Gelinas into throwing the puck up the middle with his back to the rest of the ice and Marleau picked off the pass at the Devils’ blue line before ripping a shot between Schneider’s pads.

“When you’re playing against high quality teams – and we play another one against Detroit – make them beat you. Don’t beat yourselves,” Clowe warned. “I just think that mentally you’ve got to realize that even though you’ve got two wins, if we’re in their position and comfortable in the playoffs, maybe you can take your foot off the gas, but not where we’re at. We’ve got to be sharper with the puck.”

Even with three goals coming off odd-man rushes, Schneider, who faced only 22 shots, felt he could have done more.

“They’re a team that transitions quickly,” Schneider said. “They feed off turnovers, their guys are always pushing up the ice and they’re patient. They’ll wait for that second and third guy to show up on the rush and they execute pretty well. Teams like that, they’re skilled. They’re going to get odd-man rushes. It’s up to me and my defensemen to sort it out and take things away and come up with saves and I just didn’t make enough of them tonight.”

Still, DeBoer felt the opportunity was there for the Devils to pull out the game.

“Considering the three in four nights and playing a team that’s sitting here waiting for us, one of the best teams in the league, I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” DeBoer said. “It’s a very good team. They average almost 35 shots a night (34.7). We held them to 22. We did a lot of good stuff. We gave ourselves a chance under tough circumstances to get points and it didn’t happen.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.